This invention refers to an easily-assembled cabinet consisting of four identical sides of injection moulded plastic, a torsionally rigid back and a front closing device.
In homes, and to a far greater extent in offices, there is a need for storage furniture in the form of cabinets. Such furniture is traditionally made of wood and, for the needs of the latter, to some extent sheet-metal. The sides of wooden cabinets have been made of sheets of core-board or plywood joined together at the edges. For the past 20 years, the sides of an increasing number of cabinets have been made of chipboard. In all cases, problems have arisen in joining the sides together at the corners, the solution of which has always been costly in terms of labour. This applies both to the old-fashioned method of dovetailing as well as to the method of mortising and glueing the chipboard sides together. For the latter method, the chipboard sides must be of a certain thickness, usually 19 mm, with predrilled holes for centre pins passing through the face of one of the chipboard elements into the edge of the other. This work calls for a degree of precision that can only be achieved with multi-spindle machines. All the above methods of joining are only suitable for use in a factory, since joining necessitates glueing the parts together and clamping them in position.
A complement to the aforementioned methods which permits transportation of the kind of furniture in question in compact, i.e. knocked-down, form is employed. In this connection assembly screws and threaded insert sleeves are used for which predrilling must be carried out with the consequent difficulty of aligning the free edges of the sides in the same plane. Added to this, the person assembling the cabinets must have access to certain tools, usually a screwdriver or hexagonal-spanner.
A considerable disadvantage of chipboard is that it has a coarse and comparatively delicate surface. Even the furniture grades have surfaces that require a covering coat of paint. In addition, the structure of the edges is such that they must always be covered with mouldings. The appearance and abrasion resistance of the chipboard is improved by veneering the surfaces. Such procedure entails an extra cost element.
Added to this, grooves for louvres or sliding doors must be milled in the chipboard when manufacturing cabinets. Such grooves then have to be lined with plastic mouldings so that the necessary front closing devices can be operated without abrading the soft internal parts of the chipboard.
The production of storage furniture in plastic is known but such furniture is then made in the form of volume units. They consist chiefly of parallelepiped units that are injection moulded in one piece with five surrounding sides and the front equipped with a closing device in the form of a door or cover. Such items of furniture require a special insert in order to support shelves, trays, bins and other fittings. Neither is it possible to make internal grooves in the cabinet material itself for a front closing device such as a roller shutter. However, the real disadvantage of this type of storage furniture is that in larger sizes the units require considerable manufacturing space and entail high transportation costs.
The purpose of the present invention is to obviate the above-mentioned disadvantages and to achieve a storage cabinet made of side elements of injection moulded plastic which can be assembled by the user in a simple manner without tools. It should be possible to fit interior fittings and front closing devices directly to the assembled sides.
The various features of novelty which characterize the invention are pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed to and forming a part of this disclosure. For a better understanding of the invention, its operating advantages and specific objects attained by its use, reference should be had to the accompanying drawings and descriptive matter in which there is illustrated and described a preferred embodiment of the invention.